The Wheel of Time Casting Call, Tier 3, Part 7

Welcome back to Part 7 of the Wheel of Time Casting Call, in which famous celebrities are forced to jump to my beck and call. And they love it.

Before moving forward, here are a couple things worth mentioning.

First, if there could possibly be spoilers all the way up to Towers of Midnight, the most recent book in the series. I don’t typically get all spoilery here, but if someone dies or something, it could possibly get mentioned. You’ve been warned.

Second, if you haven’t read the previous entries, you can find them right about here. I’ll try to keep this page updated.

Lastly, there has been a lot of disagreement on my choice of Juliet Landau for Berelain. As most of you may have seen me mention, the hardest part of this casting call has not been finding actors to play important characters (such as Rand, Nynaeve, etcetera), but finding actors and actresses to play the roles of those typically deemed ‘extraordinarily beautiful.’ Subjectivity and perspective play a major role in this, so at first, I was just going to move on and not worry about it, but it seems the dissent with Juliet Landau is strong enough that I should rethink that stance. Therefore, I have set up a new page where I would like readers of this blog to make their own suggestions for actors for various roles.

That should do it. Let’s proceed.

Joline Maza

The pain in Mat Cauthon’s ass for several books is a pretty Aes Sedai named Joline, who seems to have no problem ordering around (or at least, attempting to do so) the person who saved her life out of nothing moreso than the goodness of his heart. She is slender, with large brown eyes, and though I can’t find it specifically, I’m pretty sure she has dark hair. And it is mentioned that she is ‘taller than Merilille.’

Ashley Judd has played enough ‘nice girls,’ that I think it’s about time to see her do a role that’s a little less pleasant. She is a taller(-ish) woman, so that works for the other parts. She is very pleasant to look at, and her face is shaped right (in my oh-so-humble opinion) to play a jerk. I don’t have much to say on this one.

This thief-catcher from Tear has been with Mat now for awhile, but started off in the company of Nyneave, Egwene, and Elayne, helping them find the original thirteen Black Ajah. He is described as handsome and lean, with black hair, dark eyes, and a dark face. It is mentioned once that he looks to be ‘carved from aged wood,’ so I figure that to mean relatively ‘hard’ looking, or at least ‘angular.’

I didn’t know who Eli Roth was until I saw Inglourious Basterds (since I don’t watch a lot of horror, I had not seen Hostel and the likes), but quite frankly (and other than Cristoph Waltz), Eli was the star of the movie for me. He has a great look to play what I can figure from Juilin’s character, and seems to have a good, stoic reserve about him that would fit Mr. Sandar as well. Plus, he looks like the kind of guy that you could certainly have a friendly conversation with, but would mess you up if he really needed.

Another loyal Asha’Man, Grady has been hanging out with Perrin for several books now. He is one of the few (as of ToM) that we know to be good and on the side of Light. He is described as having a farmer’s face, and being a bit stocky.

Some people may believe Stephen Moyer is too much of a sex symbol nowadays to be described as a farmer’s face, but I think if you look at him closely (and you conveniently forget that he is very famous now, but was not several years ago), you can see it. I do think he is a very good actor, though not the best in True Blood, and I do like him well enough to put him in this relatively minor-ish role.

The fat Mistress of Kitchens in the White Tower, Laras has never really seemed like she may be very important, yet she kept showing up in ways to help Our Heroes out, such as helping Min rescue Siuan and Leane in TSR, and then attempting to help Egwene later. Verin seems to imply before her death that Laras is not all that she seems, so she may yet have an important role to play (some believe she has the Horn of Valere). Other than described as very hefty, the only other real information we are given about her appearance is when she tells Min she used to be quite beautiful.

Kathy Bates was originally going to be my Verin, but Verin isn’t described nearly as large as Laras, and I really like the idea of such a big-named actress playing such a seemingly minor character. I don’t really want to sit on this for too long, since I would have to keep using the words “fat” and “hefty,” and that makes me feel kind of cruel and creepy. So we’ll move on.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
About Schmidt
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Misery (older Stephen King movie, must see)

Leane Sharif

The first time we are introduced to Leane, she is not mentioned in any way to be the apparently beautiful person she is later in the series. I guess it’s because she has the ageless face, and Rand and Perrin don’t like to think of Aes Sedai in that way. It isn’t until The Fires of Heaven she becomes the character that we all love today. She is one of my favorite minor characters in the series. She has the copper-skin of a Domani, is thin and nearly as tall as a man. She is willowy, graceful, and beautiful.

I don’t know about the coppery skin part, but otherwise, I really like Olivia Wilde for this role. Granted, I cannot recall ever being told specifically that Leane has black/dark brown hair, but I feel like her other descriptions really lend themselves to her hair likely being dark. Wilde has a bit of what I would typically call a “funny face,” (almost elf-like) but she plays the very attractive role often enough that I think that’s an easily over-looked feature. And after watching House, I can totally see her manipulating (and loving) men the way Leane does.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
House
Tron
Year One

Lelaine Akashi

Ahh, Lelaine – how I have hated you. Not that Egwene is one of my favorite characters either, but seriously, you seem to serve no purpose other than to get in Egwene’s way on everything. Which is likely exactly the purpose you were meant for, narratatitvely-speaking, of course. Lelaine is older, but her hair is still dark, and she is often described as having a beautiful smile.

I needed a way to put Diane Keaton in this movie, and I found it. Keaton is one of those actresses that I seem to be magnetically drawn to – she can play any role given her with great dignity, and has one of the most beautiful smiles in Hollywood. And I would love to see her play a role that is more antagonistic (such as Lelaine’s). She may need a bit of hair dye, but that’s not biggie.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
The Family Stone
Something’s Gotta Give
Father of the Bride I and II

Liandrin

The Great Unpleasantness, Liandrin is likely one of my least favorite characters. I don’t even like her as a villain. She’s pouty, bitchy, whiny, and then she throws evil on top of all that. She has golden/honey-colored hair that she wears in braids, and is pretty.

Clare Kramer has already played Liandrin before, as far as I’m concerned, when she played Glory through Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She pulls off ‘snotty evil’ very well, and though that’s not the only kind of role she’s played, that’s the most memorable to me.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 5
The Rules of Attraction
The Gravedancers

Loial son of Arent son of Halan

Yay! Someone awesome is casted today. Loial, whose name is a pun on his most endearing feature, is a friend of Our Heroes and has been since the first book. As an Ogier, he is tall (about nine/ten feet tall), with a huge head, huge ears and eyebrows, and a large nose. He is sweet and caring, and speaks in a low, rumbling voice.

Though I think for the most part, Trollocs and Ogiers will be CGI’ed, I think there will be times when they will need human stand-ins for various types of scenes. And for those, Richard Moll is my choice. He is extremely tall, has a rich, low voice, and I just like him all around.

Nice post. I especially like ur casting for Laras, Grady, Joline and Leane.

I’m not so sure of Loial though. I always thought of him as Hagrid-ish but even more importantly, Loial is young (by Ogier standards) so the character must portay that and also his unsure and sort of squeamish attitude.

Yeah, Loial is a pretty touch one. The problem with the Hagrid-ish look is, I don’t think Loial is meant to be big, or fat, or anything of the sort – he’s just a human-proportioned really tall guy. Realistically, I do expect Loial, trollocs, and others would be done as CGI, so maybe I should have just casted his voice. In which case, it would likely be Michael Dorn. 🙂

I have a similar dissent with Leane and Juilin as I did for your Faolain, though not as vociferous.
WoT does seem Caucasian heavy, as you’ve said, but when someone’s skintone is stated outright, surely it’s one of those important points to consider when casting.
Domanis have ‘coppery skin’ and are influenced by India and Arabia, as Taraboners are by Arabians, and Tairens have a Spanish flavour. Even without this, their geographic placement points toward darker skin. Hotter countries result in the native population having more melanin in their skin to protect from the sun, and it’s unrealistic to have such a swathe of white people.
I know this is your interpretation, but as there’s a comments section I felt the need to use it, I hope you don’t find my words too negative – I know criticisms can come across that way when using the internet!

Again, you have good and original picks too – Laras and Grady are well chosen. Especially when so many want Bates for Verin, I’m pleased to find someone else who doesn’t wholly agree 🙂

Again, no worries about how your words sound, I feel like I’m pretty good at taking internet-criticisms in the way they should be taken.

I could probably be convinced that Olivia wouldn’t really fit Leane’s character 100%, but on the other hand, I don’t dislike it enough that I thought about changing it with my last read-through (as I did with Faolain and a few others).

For Juilin, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. 🙂 I think he has enough of a “darker-than-plain-ol’-white” complexion and coloring to pull off both what I think of him in the books, as well as your description of him having a Spanish flavor (he would just be a bit lighter-colored Spaniard).

It’s true, he could be a paler Spanish type. I myself thought, when reading others who assumed Juilin was darker because of the ‘aged wood’ comment, well… what kind of wood? What if it was balsa wood? 😉 I just think WoT needs a bit more shading, so to speak, apart from anything else.